10 Easter Basket Ideas for Your Toddler: No Candy Required!

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Easter is one of my favorite holidays of the year. It is a holiday spent with family and signals the start of springtime. I love the colors of Easter and seeing the bunny and Easter egg decorations everywhere.

When I was a little girl, my mom hid small toys around the house for us to find. She also hid our Easter basket in a special place. Looking for the surprised left by the Easter bunny was always a fun tradition on Easter morning. Chocolate or candy wasn’t a staple Easter gift for us. Rather, my mom gave us outdoor toys and a few small things related to our interests at the time.

My husband and I want to make Easter special for our daughter, but don’t want to give her a basket filled with chocolate and sugary treats. Maybe when she is older, we will give her a chocolate bunny from our favorite local chocolate shop, but not this year!

There are many Easter basket ideas for toddlers. Just search Pinterest and you will find quite a few cute ideas. I wanted to share the ten items we chose to put into our 1-year old daughter’s Easter basket, along with a short explanation of why, to help you fill your own toddler’s basket this Easter.

Our daughter’s Easter basket is filled with lots of fun (and some practical) items. Most of the ten items were found at the Dollar Tree (I love this store!!). Other items were purchased during the year at Target, Aldi and Carter’s. Either way, we did not spend a lot of money on the items we put in her Easter basket.

Outdoor Toys & Activities for A Toddler’s Easter Basket

Ball – The Dollar Tree also had soft balls with Minnie Mouse on them. Our daughter likes to throw balls! Once again, a simple item that can create hours of entertainment! The softness of the ball makes it a great indoor toy, too!

Bubbles – Toddlers love bubbles!! The Dollar Tree had bubbles with Minnie Mouse on them. Our daughter loves Minnie Mouse and the bubbles will be another enjoyable activity on a warm spring afternoon. Chasing the bubbles and trying to catch them will be a good use of our daughter’s energy and is a wonderful way to feed into a toddler’s need for exercise.

Plastic Flower Bouquet & Watering Can – The plastic daisies, daffodil and tulip were found in the Target Dollar bin (Oh Target, how I love you!). They are colorful and scream springtime! The watering can is from the Dollar Tree. Our daughter loves pouring water in the bathtub so the watering can is a great toy for her. Plus, she can help mommy and daddy water the flowers outside!

Sidewalk Chalk – Our daughter is starting to understand how crayons work. I thought the sidewalk chalk would be a fun activity for us to do together. This would get us outdoors, which our daughter loves, and working on fine and gross motor skills. I loved this pack of sidewalk chalk because it comes with the holder to keep our daughter’s hands cleaner! This set of egg-shaped sidewalk chalk is another fun idea!

Indoor Toys & Activities for A Toddler’s Easter Basket

Beauty and the Beast Character Plush – The Belle, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth soft plush were discovered at Target at Christmastime. These plush dolls were in the Stocking Stuffer section of the store. I also saw them at Five Below. I loved that these dolls were soft with no plastic pieces to break off and become a choking hazard for our 1-year old daughter. These Beauty and the Beast character plush will encourage imaginative play and storytelling!

Fisher Price Little People Disney Princess Parade Figurine – My mom bought our daughter a set of Little People Disney Princesses for Christmas. The set did not come with Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. Aldi had these Little People Disney Princess Parade figurines in their store this week so I purchased Tiana & Prince Naveen’s Float. The Little People figurine only cost $4.99, which is 40-50% off the regular retail price. She loves playing with her Disney princesses (We love Disney in our house!) and this particular figurine is unique because it comes with a float, with a spinning flower, for Princess Tiana to ride on. You can purchase all the princesses, link them together and form a princess train. What a fun toy for little girls!

My First Library Mini Board Books Set – This set of mini board books was another Aldi find, for $5! My mom gave our daughter a similar set of books for Valentine’s Day and she is always reading them! Plus, the small size of these board books makes them easy to toss into the diaper bag. This is a great way to entertain our daughter while waiting in line at the grocery store, eating at a restaurant or riding in the car. The real-life pictures peak our daughter’s interest and the words build her vocabulary. Board Books are the perfect Easter gift for toddlers. These lift-a-flap board books are another wonderful option for your toddler’s Easter basket. Encouraging and nurturing reading from day one is so beneficial to your child. I share 15 benefits of reading with your child here.

Clothing & Accessories for A Toddler’s Easter Basket

Spring Shirts – Several months ago, I browsed the clearance corner at Carter’s for future clothes. I came across these two cute spring tops, which I saved for Easter. They were $3 each, which was a great bargain in my book. I love the frilly sleeves with the eyelet pattern and colorful birds on the light pink one. The teal and fuschia colors drew me to the other one! Plus, the phrase fits our daughter perfectly. She is always smiling and so happy!

Butterfly Headband – This headband is too cute! Last year, I got our daughter a bunny ears headband. I used it as a prop for our Easter at-home baby photo shoot. When I saw the butterfly one this year, I was immediately drawn to the bright colors. Our daughter will enjoy wearing this, taking it on and off her head, and putting it on the heads of her stuffed animals. Plus, I will use this headband as a prop in a springtime photo shoot. Click the image below to learn more about the fun at-home baby photo shoots I do with my sweet girl!

Other clothing & accessory ideas for a toddler’s Easter basket, while more practical than fun, include:

• Bathing Suit
• Sun Hat
• Sunglasses
• Water Shoes
• Sandals
• Sneakers

Eggstra-Special Ideas for A Toddler’s Easter Basket

Easter Card – Our 1-year old daughter cannot read yet, but we started getting her a card for each holiday since she was born. We write a message in it from mommy and daddy. We read the message to her and she enjoys looking at the picture on the cover. She likes to open it and close it like a book. I am keeping the cards (along with other special items from her baby and toddler days) in a box that I will give her when she is older.

These are the ten items my husband and I chose to include in our 1-year old’s Easter basket. The items we purchased for her Easter basket encourage imaginative play, keep our toddler active, and are practical. My husband and I are excited to play outside with our daughter!

It was a lot of fun for me to shop for our daughter’s Easter gifts and to put everything together for Easter morning. It was a puzzle trying to fit everything inside the “Happy Easter” pail we used! I love how it turned out and am super excited for her to see it on Easter morning. She loves taking things out of a container and carrying baskets, bags or anything with handles around the house so this is right up her alley.

Easter will be so much fun this year because our daughter is more aware, busy and mobile than last year (5 months vs. 17 months). We love watching her grow each year and witnessing pure joy and happiness on her face makes each holiday special and full of wonderful memories for our family.

I hope you have as much fun as I did putting together an Easter basket for your toddler. What is your favorite item to include? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

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